Why is our country so obsessed with celebrities?

Verbatim

What is the purpose of a tabloid? Why is America so obsessed with these celebrities who don’t seem to know how to run their own lives?

Why is it that if you do a search for “celebrity gossip” on Google, more than a hundred million articles appear?

The earliest “celebrities” I can find on any online encyclopedia are painters -- Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Michelangelo, DaVinci and others. So how did our country go from respecting those who do something with their lives to Britney Spears, who shaved her head and went into rehab for the third time; Brad Pitt, who has been romantically involved with too many stars for me to count; and Nicole Richie, who weighs a maybe a total of 85 pounds?

Sure, they may have played in movies or recorded songs, but do they really deserve the attention that they get?

Don’t get me wrong, I do the same thing. I’ve bought my share of celebrity brand perfumes, shampoos, and conditioners with the best of them. I guess I buy that stuff mostly because it smells good. Another example, I dye my hair, mainly because I don’t like my natural hair color and because I think it looks good.

Society tells us that celebrities are cool. Many Americans take them at their word and follow them around blindly. These people strive to look like them, act like them, and for some, even smell like them.

Society seems to tell us that if a person isn’t like a celebrity, then they aren’t acceptable and deserve to be made fun of. This argument may sound stupid, but think about it, look around. It may be more true than you think.

When we don’t look enough like these celebrities, we suffer for it. Some try so hard, spend every cent they have, just to be a little bit more like a celebrity. Some girls struggle with their weight, they throw a fit because they aren’t 85 pounds. Let me tell you, there is no healthy person that I have ever known that weighs 85 pounds.

Some guys think they need the muscles, six-pack and great hair, in order to even escape the judgement of their peers, but the truth about that is there are many girls who don’t really care about muscles.

If I went out and shaved my head and my husband filed for divorce based on the afore mentioned act, and I went completely crazy, no one would even care! Britney Spears does it and she gets publicity off of it and makes money. I could go sleep with a married man, and no one would care, but if Angelina Jolie does it, both she and the man make money.

So what makes people famous?

Some celebrities get noticed because of some talent they have such as singing or acting, because the public sees their face and they become familiar in their eyes. Britney Spears is so famous, her younger sister Jamie Lynn Spears is automatically famous and gets her own show, because people want to know everything about Britney’s life, so they have to know celebrities’ siblings as well.

All in all, I think the world would be such a better place if we didn’t have celebrities, but I guess it isn’t possible, unless we had no movies, television, or even books.

his coulumn is the opinion of Melissa Newton, a sophomore at Wings Christian Academy.